Saturday, March 25, 2006

No joy for would-be plaintiffs in Maryland racial profiling case

In Bridges v. Department of Maryland State Police, the Fourth Circuit in an opinion by Judge Niemeyer, joined by Chief Judge Wilkins and Judge Williams, held in a purported class action against a number of police officials that: (1) there was no final order on a motion to amend, (2) non-party "would-be plaintiffs" lacked standing to appeal, since they had never file a motion to intervene, and (3) even if the would-be plaintiffs were considered to have sought intervention, their claims were barred by the statute of limitations.